God, Fate, and Enemies of Reason: the Self Respect Movement in South India
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The Dissertation Committee for Cary E. Sockwell Curtiss Certifies that this is the approved version of the following Dissertation: God, Fate, and Enemies of Reason: The Self Respect Movement in South India Committee: Martha A. Selby, Supervisor Lisa Mitchell Sumit Guha Donald R. Davis Jr. Oliver Freiberger God, Fate, and Enemies of Reason: The Self Respect Movement in South India by Cary E. Sockwell Curtiss Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2020 Dedication For my family, who share their love and support so fully. AcknowledGements It is overwhelming to attempt to put in to words how deeply others have been a part of this process. I want to begin by thanking my graduate school community. My experience at the University of Texas at Austin was tremendous, and this is largely due to the exceptional people with whom I was surrounded. My fellow graduate students played a major role in my academic development. I thank all of them, and especially want to name Amber Abbas and Dean Accardi for many, many conversations which pushed me and furthered my interaction with my studies. Additionally, friends outside of my specific academic context played critical roles in helping me relate my academic pursuits to wider contexts, and in providing friendship, fellowship, and support. Many friends have meant so much to this journey through various roles such as our regular dinner group, to starting new phases for our families together, to showing up and seeing me through some of the toughest times I have had. In these contexts, I want to especially thank both Amber and Dean mentioned above, and also Robyn Heeks and Erin Gentry. The second group of people who have been generous and formative to this process are the faculty with whom I studied at the University of Texas at Austin – and also those with whom I studied earlier in life. I want to start by thanking, wholeheartedly, my Ph.D. advisor Martha Selby. Martha has been supportive beyond what I could ever have expected. She has read this dissertation more times than I would wish on anyone! I cannot say enough as to how important she has been to this process. I would not have managed to see this through if it were not for her. At the University of Texas at Austin, I also benefited and grew due to opportunities to study with Gail Minault, Sankaran Radhakrishnan, Janice Leoshko, Thomas Tweed, Wm. Roger Louis, Antony Hopkins, iv Kamala Visweswaran, and Syed Akbar Hyder, among others. Additionally, I am grateful for Jennifer Tipton's repeated help navigating processes at the University of Texas. I came to the University of Texas at Austin with so much to learn, and I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity. I would also like to thank other professors and teachers I have had, especially Bill Helf, Kelly Dean Jolley, Mary Cameron, Kelly Alley, and Jody Graham. All of these teachers have been part of my love of learning, and that is a gift I carry always. Finally, I want to close by thanking my family. I am thankful to extended family such as Peggy Sockwell, Louise Stump, and Ashley Curtiss; they have been there for me so many times. For the past twenty-five years, Susan Cloud has been my almost-family, and I am immensely grateful to have her friendship to lean on. My parents Anne and Sam had a marathon dissertation-reading weekend with me, and provided me so much helpful and thoughtful feedback. Alongside them, my sisters Emily and Rebecca, and their families, have given me endless encouragement, patience, support, and love. I would not be here without my family. My deepest heartfelt thank you goes to my son Jackson and my partner Matthew; they are the two who got me to the finish line, day by day. Jackson, through his easygoing nature, has been consistently supportive and a constant source of joy and humor. Matthew has believed in me so fully, and has given me much-needed perspective in addition to unquestioning energy and help. From the moment Matthew said “What do we need to do to make this happen?” we three did it, together. v Abstract God, Fate, and Enemies of Reason: The Self Respect Movement in South India Cary E. Sockwell Curtiss, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2020 Supervisor: Martha A. Selby With this dissertation, I investigate the question of how the Self Respect Movement, with its rejection of religion and seeming promotion of atheism, fit into the religious landscape of India in the early twentieth century. I argue that history has failed to appreciate the non-religious dynamics of this movement and the complex role of non- religion in India. South Indian social identities went through many changes in the early twentieth century and are commonly explored through influences such as caste, regionalism, language, politics, religion, and gender. This dissertation calls attention to the lack of study of non-religion, which I consider here as a field of tangible and specific phenomena. I begin by reviewing the conceptual framework for the study of non-religion, followed by historiographical approaches to the study of Indian history and nationalism. This provides context for a discussion of the political reform milieu in which the Self Respect Movement arose. I also review the historiography of the study of religion, secularism, and rationalism as a foundation for the study to follow. I turn to individuals’ published writings in varieties of early twentieth century south Indian journals to vi investigate the ways that individual authors champion reason and critique the religious culture around them. Considering perspectives that non-religion offers as alternatives to religious lifestyles offers a richer, more contextualized approach to evaluating the status of religion in India, both historically and into the current day. Here, I show that the Self Respect Movement contributed to identity formation through the exposition of specific values and establishment of new normative practices. I argue that to consider the non- religious aspects of the Self Respect Movement as merely reactionary, inflammatory, or as derivative of western Enlightenment values is reductive and misses the compelling meaning and formative nature that non-religion played for its members. vii Table of Contents Chapter 1: ““Every Human Being is Rational” An introduction to Non-Religion and Early Twentieth Century South India ............................................................................1 Constitutive Boundaries, Aims, and Organization .....................................................2 Conceptual Non-Religion ...........................................................................................6 Historiographical Contextualization ...........................................................................9 Nationalism ...................................................................................................12 Religion in India, Historically ......................................................................15 Caste .........................................................................................................................22 History and Caste ..........................................................................................23 Caste in South India ......................................................................................27 Nationalism and Language on Center Stage .............................................................30 India, Language, and Historical Context ......................................................33 South Indian Tamil Language Context .........................................................34 Differences between Tamil and Telugu Speaking Areas ..............................37 Political Changes and the Emergence of the Self Respect Movement .....................41 Tamil “Nationalism” .....................................................................................46 E.V.R. ...........................................................................................................49 Reflections ................................................................................................................51 Chapter 2: “Rationalists, Humanists, and Atheists” The Study of Religion and the Emergence of Rationalism ...........................................................................................53 The Study of Religion ...............................................................................................55 Historical Trajectory of the Study of Religion .............................................55 Contemporary Debate in the Study of Religion............................................ 58 viii Secularity ..................................................................................................................60 Historical Development of the Concept of “the Secular” .............................62 Contemporary Debate over Secularity ..........................................................66 Historical Emergence of the Term “Rationalism” ........................................70 Atheism and Secularism in India ..............................................................................72 Short History of Atheism in India ................................................................73 Secularism in India .......................................................................................77 Chapter 3: “If Religion